history

How it all began

On January 20, 1956, twelve kitchen furniture manufacturers met in Darmstadt and decided to establish the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Die Moderne Küche (AMK) in the legal form of a registered association.

The first statutes were submitted to the District Court of Darmstadt on May 26, 1956, together with the minutes of the founding meeting, for entry in the register of associations. That was the birth of AMK, an association to which today more than 160 companies belong.

The initiative for founding the association came from Professor Werner Sell. Another founding member was Mr. Walter Ludewig, who was personally liable partner of Poggenpohl KG for 52 years.

Initially, the founding fathers only intended to bring together kitchen furniture manufacturers in a working group, but soon the appliance and accessory manufacturers also showed interest in AMK. As early as October 1956, the founders decided to form a support group and to establish the appliance and accessory manufacturers there.

In order to fulfill the growing tasks as a modern service organization for the entire kitchen industry, a new charter was adopted in March 1993, eliminating the separation between members and supporters and establishing a far-reaching equality of all association members.

First challenges

At the end of the 1950s, architects and construction companies often planned apartments and homes according to the principle: “Whatever is left over becomes the kitchen.”

For this reason, the AMK has been fighting for the planning of larger kitchen spaces since its foundation. The first kitchen building standard DIN 18022, in which the AMK had actively participated, had already been adopted in 1957.

In 1957, the internationally acclaimed “Interbau” exhibition took place in Berlin, in which almost all world-renowned architects participated. The AMK was not afraid to express its disappointment about the kitchen solutions on display and to point out serious planning, installation and design errors. Architects and property developers were slow to embrace the new kitchen design.

Even the furniture trade initially had its reservations about the new product, the fitted kitchen, which, in contrast to the simple kitchen sideboard, required careful planning. Careful planning was essential. Specialist knowledge was needed. This is how the first specialized kitchen salespeople came to be established; these qualified specialists were more expensive than all-round sales staff. Therefore, intensive educational and persuasive work was necessary for the modern kitchen vis-à-vis the trade. The AMK succeeded in this with the support of the associations of the furniture trade and the technical specialized trade, which were open to this concern at the time and actively supported the effort to introduce the modern kitchen.

Impetus through information

In the 50s and early 60s, a lot of impetus had to be provided for rethinking processes. PR work for the planned kitchen was therefore one of the main focuses of the association’s work from the very first hours of AMK and has remained so to this day.

Press work began immediately after the association was founded. In the early years, daily newspapers, consumer and trade magazines received information more or less sporadically. Since the 1960s, press work has been carried out in a targeted and systematic manner.

Using knowledge to spark desires

In 1957, the AMK had 5,000 copies of the brochure “The Modern Kitchen” printed for the first time.

In 1957, the topic of kitchens was the subject of a television program for the first time. After the ARD “Guide” was broadcast, more than 10,000 inquiries were received by the AMK office in the following weeks.

From January 1978, around 40,000 kitchen buyers annually received the information data sheet “It’s about your kitchen”, which was specially developed for this group of recipients, and the company directory “Everything for the modern kitchen”. The “Kitchen Guide” takes into account the increased need for information.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, a total of over one million copies of this publication have been printed and distributed in several editions. The currently revised AMK Kitchen Buyer’s Guide was published in May 2023.